Is southern India’s ‘alien rain’ proof of extraterrestrial life?

Some scientists believe red rain that fell in India is proof of extraterrestrial life.

Godfrey Louis examining the alien rain. (Credit: Science Channel)

The Huffington Post explains that, “Between July 25 and September 23, 2001, the Indian state of Kerala was drenched by bizarre red-colored rain unlike any seen previously.” Kerala-based physicist Godfrey Louis analyzed the rain water, and to his amazement, the particles appeared to be alive. Louis believes the particles are extraterrestrial spores that were hitching a ride on a meteorite that exploded over Kerala before the red rainstorm. This theory is supported by the fact that, according to Louis’ research, these extremophiles are able to continue replicating at temperatures exceeding 572 degrees Fahrenheit.

According to the Huffington Post, professor Chandra Wickramasinghe believes the “alien rain” theory is “not only plausible, but likely.” In an upcoming episode of The Unexplained Files, Wickramasinghe opines, “The existence of life outside the Earth is amazingly regarded as an extraordinary hypothesis, but I would argue that the extraordinary hypothesis is that this tiny minute piece of dust we call the Earth is the center of life in the universe and that no life exists even next door to it.”

The “alien rain” episode of The Unexplained Files airs on Wednesday, September 25 on the Science Channel.

About Jason McClellan

Jason McClellan is a UFO journalist and the producer/co-host of the web series Spacing Out! He is also the web content manager and staff writer for OpenMinds.tv, and a co-organizer and technical producer of the International UFO Congress. As a founding member of Open Minds, Jason served as a writer and editor for the now defunct Open Minds magazine. He has appeared on Syfy, NatGeo, and, most recently, he co-starred on H2's Hangar 1: The UFO Files.
------
Follow Jason on Twitter @acecentric and
subscribe to Jason's updates on Facebook.

One comment

The theory of Panspermia is likely to be plausible. However, the arguements presented by Prof. Louis and Wickramasinghe on red rain cells are weak and not reliable. The results published by both in non-peer reviewed journals should be verified seriously by microbiologists. There are many inconsistencies in their reports… e.g. louis claims on the absence of DNA on the basis of staining experiments, whilst no effort was made to understand the potential factors responsible for the impermeability of these so called red rain cells to such chemical stains. Also, there papers reporting the growth in number of red rain cells at 300 deg celcius provide no explanation for why they used culture media such as cedar wood oil, sulphuric acid, petroleum jelly and other bizzare medium which do not comply with the standards of microbiological investigation. Moreover, their paper on fluorescence properties of red rain cells also raise few debatable questions.

Prof. Chandras’s paper on finding a red rain fossils in so called chunks of meteorite in Sri Lanka lacks credibility. His reports on the sperm like motility of these cells, finding large amounts of arsenic, silver and now uranium in red rain cells is questionable and misleading. These should be investigated by independent scientists before any consideration.